KUALA LUMPUR: YTL Communications, the first and only company in Malaysia so far to offer 5G service, has backed Digital Nasional Bhd's (DNB) move to ensure a level playing field of the superspeed broadband deployment.
Its chief executive officer Wing K Lee said the deployment of 4G previously by other industry players was focused in the city centre before it was rolled out to the suburban areas followed by rural areas.
"We cannot afford to do that again with 5G. We have to ensure that 5G is a national scale deployment so that all industries have the opportunity to use it.
"This is why we are the first to support DNB because we see eye to eye with them in terms of national level playing field," he told the New Straits Times in a recent interview.
According to the latest data by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission, the current 4G penetration in Malaysia stands at 95 per cent.
DNB plans to have 5G to cover 40 per cent of the population by year-end and 80 per cent coverage by 2024.
DNB's goal to ensure 80 per cent of the population get 5G within three years is a move that Lee lauds as it will be the single fastest network deployment in the country's history.
"Come 2023 they will continue to deploy to other parts of Malaysia and by 2024, 80 per cent of the country would have 5G so essentially they would have gone from zero 5G at the end of 2021 to 80 per cent coverage in three years time.
"The government has done a great job in having a clear direction and DNB has done a wonderful job since 15 months ago," he said.
The deployment of 5G is vital for Malaysia now especially as the country transitions to an endemic phase after battling with Covid-19 for two years.
Lee said Malaysia needed to outrun its regional neighbours with the right platform to boost its growth.
"We want to be competitive and 5G gives us that edge as a digital platform to help the nation leapfrog.
"We cannot do it with the 4G that we have today because it does not have the world-class performance to help the country," he said.
As DNB focused on the rollout, Lee said this allowed YTL Communications to devise ways on bringing new innovation through 5G.
He added that the company was also making its existing towers available for DNB to utilise for the deployment of 5G.
Using existing sites will ennable 5G to be deployed faster and benefit the people at large.
"However, not all existing sites are available as some are full. So in that scenario, DNB has to work with states and local authorities to build new sites.
"This may take a long time to get approval. To build as many sites as possible for optimum coverage, it requires public-private collaboration.
This is truly a nation building effort," he said.
He added that the customers using the operator's 5G network since its soft launch in December were getting an average speed of 665 megabits per second (mbps).
He noted that the fastest speed in other parts of the world hovered around 400 mbps and therefore this speed put Malaysia on the map to be among the countries with fastest 5G in the world.
"Our customers are getting an average of 665 mbps speed which means that many customers are getting higher speed than that.
"Looking at these numbers, this is world class performance," said Lee.
To increase the adoption of 5G by its customers Lee said the company had introduced Yes Infinite+ mobile plan, which he claimed as "a plan that will end all arguments".
The basic Yes Infinite+ plan costs RM58 per month, the standard plan costs RM88 per month, the premium plan costs RM118 per month, and the ultra plan costs RM178 per month.
All of them include unlimited 5G and 4G data as well as unlimited calls.
Yes Infinite+ 36-month contract includes a free 5G smartphone. YTL's basic plan includes the Vivo Y55+, while the standard plan includes the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro or the Samsung A33.
The premium plan includes an OPPO Reno 7 or a Samsung A53, while the ultra plan includes a Vivo X80 or a Samsung S22.
"Our focus is innovation for customers, with real products," added Lee.